Comment on Xbox Next-Gen Console Confirmed, Will be 'Largest Technical Leap in a Hardware Generation'
Omegamanthethird@lemmy.world 4 months ago
The biggest jump in the current consoles was the load times. I don’t think there’s anything the next gen could do to impress.
beefcat@lemmy.world 4 months ago
Ray tracing performance that’s actually good enough for games to fully ditch rasterized lighting and reflections
Omegamanthethird@lemmy.world 4 months ago
That sounds a lot like the jump from HD to 4K. Which is to say a lot less impactful than the previous jumps and tech. And something a lot of people might not even notice.
Are there other benefits to this? Like less work for developers?
beefcat@lemmy.world 4 months ago
A lot less work for developers, smaller game sizes, and map and game design no longer needing to be built around the onerous limitations of raster lighting and reflections.
Ray tracing is a bigger deal than most people realize. It feels like a gimmick because the games that support it today are still ultimately designed around rasterization.
Path-traced lighting in particular is a huge game changer, and means developers will no longer have to choose between rudimentary global dynamic lighting and very static and storage-intensive baked lighting. You can get the benefits of both without the drawbacks of either, assuming the hardware is up to snuff.
CaptPretentious@lemmy.world 4 months ago
That is beyond optimistic for consoles. Maybe three or four more generations worth.
beefcat@lemmy.world 4 months ago
It’s possible with high end PC hardware today. Consoles aren’t nearly that far behind PC when they launch.